sexual abuse

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

sexual abuse (usually uncountable, plural sexual abuses)

1. (crime) Any sexual activity that is undesired by one participant but forced on them nonetheless, especially when considered to be more sustained or frequent than an incident of sexual assault.

   Synonyms: sex abuse, molestation

   Hypernym: abuse

   • 1971 October 4, ‘Facing Equality for Women’, Time:

     Statutory-rape laws concerning voluntary intercourse would probably be taken off the books, though both young boys and young girls could still be protected against any sexual abuse by older persons.

   • 1987, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure

     I believe that I was the victim of sexual abuse in my relationship with T. It was always the way HE wanted it & I wasn't to do anything I wanted. So I just "submitted" to him & was glad that he would have anything to do with me.

   • 2013, The Guardian, (headline), 29 Sep 2013:

     Argentine priest Julio Grassi begins 15-year sentence over sexual abuse.

Derived terms

• child sexual abuse

Translations

forcing of undesired sexual activity by one person on another

• Afrikaans: seksuele misbruik
• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: abús sexual m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 性虐待 (zh) (xìngnüèdài)

• Danish: seksuelt misbrug c
• Dutch: seksueel misbruik (nl) n
• Finnish: seksuaalinen hyväksikäyttö (fi)
• French: sévices sexuels m
• German: sexueller Missbrauch m
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Japanese: 性的虐待 (ja) (seitekigyakutai), 性虐待 (seigyakutai)
• Malay: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: wykorzystywanie seksualne n
• Portuguese: abuso sexual m
• Romanian: abuz sexual n
• Russian: сексуальное злоупотребление n (seksualʹnoje zloupotreblenije)
• Spanish: abuso sexual m
• Swedish: sexuellt övergrepp